Glass: Nixon’s teacher development a model

CEDAR RAPIDS - After spending the morning observing teacher professional development at Nixon Elementary School in Hiawatha, Department of Education Director Jason Glass liked what he saw.

“What's going on at Nixon is exactly what we wanted to see,” he said Thursday.

Glass was invited to check out the district's approach to teacher development by Joe Crozier, chief administrator for the Grant Wood Area Education Agency, who wanted him to see the school's professional learning communities.

Such an approach has teachers across classes, grades and subjects working closely together and sharing student achievement data. It has become popular in recent years but isn't always used effectively, Glass said.

“You see these in a lot of districts and schools, but few of them well,” he said. “The collaboration I saw today with the teachers and support staff were exceptional.”

Glass singled out Nixon's instructional coaches, a role he said was similar to that of the “master teacher” - a rank in the salary structure that was originally part of Gov. Terry Branstad's education reform plans. Glass said this role was misinterpreted by some who thought master teachers would be limited in how much time they would spend working with students.

“What we want is to get them out to more classrooms to share what they know,” he said.